Captain Ladybug
by Agoodmoon
Summary: Captain Ladybug died fighting in World War 2. She woke up in the modern day, ready to finish what she died starting. Luckily, she has the help of a man in a mechanical black cat suit. (Avengers Fusion) Ladynoir
1. Chapter 1

The last thing Marinette remembered was the water. It surrounded her, consumed her. In that moment the ocean was nothing but a gaping mouth eager to swallow her and the Miraculous whole. At least Hawkmouth was dead, his body fallen even further below her.

In her last moments she thought of Alya, fallen into the ravine. She should have never been there, Alya had been a reporter, there was no need for Hawkmoth to take her hostage. No reason at all.

Marinette tried not to think about Felix. About how he had finally agreed to take her dancing. She had liked him, liked the way he didn't fawn all over her like the others. She had even liked his harsh tongue, even though she liked to chew him out for it. At least she could rest easy knowing he would be able to move on without her. She wished she could've gotten ahold of him though, heard his voice one last time.

She wondered, where did genetically altered women who had never learned to be proper women go?

Apparently to the hospital. An odd sort of hospital, there was something in the air that made it feel odd. Any other time she would have put it down to disorientation, but she had learned to trust her instincts, and the air crackled with something unfamiliar. The smell was antiseptic, sterile, to sterile. It didn't matter how many times a hospital room was scrubbed, it would always bear some scent of its previous residents, urine, sweat, and other fluids.

This room was brand new, from the paint on the walls, to the blankets over her.

A slim woman, Italian, but that was okay since the Italians were allies now, slipped into the room and began to fill out a form, "Good morning Miss Dupain." The nurse said.

At least, Marinette thought she said that, because Marinette was far too focused on the radio station. That game, she knew it. She and Alya had gone to see it a few weeks before, before Dr. Tikki had performed the mutations to transform her.

"That's Captain Dupain." Marinette correct absently, "What happened?"

"The war is over," The nurse said, her smile wide.

That reaction alone told Marinette something was definitely wrong. How could anyone who had lived through it announce the end of the war like that? For all she knew the war was still on and she was in one of Hawkmoth's hideaways.

Which meant she needed to act quick.

She stood and grabbed the radio, threw it at the nurse, and then ran as fast as she could. She'd lifted a car in the war once, and she could already tell the bruises left from smashing a wall down were going to be similar.

She ran as fast as she could and she ignored the attempts to stop her, knocking out the strange people in black suits as they approached her. She'd never seen a woman in a nice suit, but she didn't have a second to appreciate it while she was running.

And then, she was in a street, shiny, fast cars speeding past her and neon signs surrounding her. She stared, aghast.

"Welcome Captain," Said a voice from behind her, "To the Twenty-first century."

"Felix?" Marinette asked, turning in shock, but as he came closer she found the man's features transformed until she wasn't sure why she had thought he was Felix at all.

"My father. I'm Gabriel." The man said with a wry smile, "He wanted to make sure we took care of you. And we will, as soon as you get back inside."

Behind him, a billboard moved like a movie screen, showing off a women in the skimpiest military uniform she'd ever seen. Words along the bottom said, "Support our troops. Call #1-800-OUR-TROOPS". It was replaced almost immediately by the image of a child, crying, wrapped in a blanket, "Feed a starving child for only ten cents a day."

"Alright." Marinette said, she followed Gabriel back inside, and she tried to pretend like she was marching out of habit rather than to hide the way her hands shook.

Adrien was only twenty-two when he went to Afganistan. He goes for many reasons. Because he wanted to make his father proud, because he wanted to show he can stand on his two feet, because it was go to Afghanistan and show off Cataclysm or it was go to Milan and prove to his father that all he is is a pretty face.

No matter what the reason, when he woke up attached to a car battery, he knew it wasn't worth it.

He had never supported his father's business. Never wanted to grow up and build weapons for a living. But he had always wanted to make his father proud, wanted to show that he inherited the Agreste intelligence, not only the looks.

But it wasn't his father there in the cave with him. It was only Dr. Plagg, who had a family and dreamt of escaping the cave to eat the special Camembert cheese his wife made. Dr. Plagg who helped him build the suit out of old weapons. Dr. Plagg who praised him, and then Dr. Plagg who died to save him.

Adrien made Chat Noir a public figure when he returned home, and declared that so long as the Agreste company made weapons, they would be his enemies. That his father would be his enemy. Not that the public knew that, though Adrien went on public record as agreeing with Chat Noir.

Nino cheered for him, and Chloe rolled her eyes and pouted, but seemed to decide that their friendship was stronger than either of them had expected, as she did an interview announcing her own alliance with Chat Noir.

Of course, disowning himself from his own family had some downsides. Namely that his only money was what was leftover from his modeling jobs, and no one wanted him now, with the hole in his chest. Even Chloe had stopped pursuing him once she had seen him shirtless.

So, worried about his financial future, he ended up taking a job at SHIELD, unaware of who it's director was.

Which was how, on an average Monday afternoon, he ended up in the same room as Captain Ladybug, his childhood idol. The woman he had sworn to marry in every interview he had ever given. If there was a god, Captain Ladybug would hopefully never, ever find those.

"Oh my god." He squeaked.

"Are you Chat Noir?" She asked, voice as commanding as he had expected. But there was more to it, something softer, something that the old film reels couldn't have captured.

"Y-yes!" He said, then tried to calm himself down, he winced as he took a step back from her, the suit clanged hard against the metal floors, "I mean, yes, I'm Chat Noir, at your service My lady."

She smiled at him, "They say we're going to be working together. I like to know the men I work with."

"Oh, well, I'm Chat Noir, which you already knew," He mumbled, then tried to rebound, "Ah, but I'm an inventor! I built my suit, and if you need any help understanding modern technology, I would be happy to help!"

"Really?" She asked, "The you can help me with this, I think."

He had never given much thought to her purse. He knew she kept her yo-yo and a handgun in it, and that there has always been a fight in the feminist community over it. Whether carrying a purse on a battlefield is the ultimate act of embracing femininity or a way to make women look vapid and only concerned about their looks.

He liked it though, and it must have some use, seeing as how she managed to pull a seven inch tablet out of a purse the size of her fist.

"I told Nathalie that I wanted to draw, and she gave me this piece of glass?" Ladybug held it out to him, "I suppose it's some sort of new machine, right?"

"Right!" He shouted, excited to see her catching on, "I mean, yes! It's called a tablet, to turn it on you press this button here."

He pointed to the button without taking it from her, and she pressed it on her own. Luckily, he kept his hands near her, because she squeaked and nearly dropped the tablet when it's screen flashed on. He caught it and returned it to her quickly, and took a moment to admire the way her face flushed to match her cowl.

"I wasn't exactly expecting that." She mumbled in a heated whisper, her eyes dared him to laugh, but he persevered.

"It's natural, you couldn't have known, I should have explained better!" Chat said, "It's a computer, you can touch the screen like this." He scrolled through pages, showing off the apps installed. No social networks, and the youtube app was the kind that had parental controls. There was photoshop as well. He wondered what person thought Ladybug needed to be sheltered from cat videos, but not the complications of learning photoshop.

She hesitantly reached over and tapped angry birds, then tried to hide her gasp when the screen changed and cheerful musical filtered through the speakers.

"Wow!" She began to tap at the screen, and he found himself getting lost in watching her play the game. She took to it like a duck to water, passing through the first few levels with full stars.

"Oh! But, you wanted to draw, right?" He said suddenly, after watching her finish her level.

"Huh? Yes!" She agreed, "How to do I-?"

"First press the button shaped like a house," He instructed, "Then you'll want a program, I noticed they had photoshop, but the program is hard to understand even for people raised in this century," He winced, but when she didn't react, continued on, "So, let me show you the app store and we can find you a better drawing program."

"That would be nice, thank you."

"Anything for you my lady." He grinned.

Marinette liked the 21st century, all things told. She had more rights then back in the 40's, but she always had. They had told her she couldn't fight in the war with papa, and she hadn't listened, had disguised her gender and applied in every country she could. But she faced rejection after rejection for her health. She was small, frail, weak, even for a woman. Then Dr Tikki had found her, and given her the serum.

There was no weakness in her now, but she got the feeling that even frail little Mari from before the serum would have had strength in the new millennium.

Alya would have loved it. No one would have looked at her twice or talked down to her. She would have had other people to write about too. Alya had always loved to write about heroes, war heroes or genetically altered heroes. There were so many now, of both varieties.

Marinette decided to go to the World War 2 memorial like other people decided to go and buy milk. She told Gabriel she was going to go, and if he wanted it to be on his watch or not was up to him. He seemed to understand at least.

She had wanted to take her motorcycle, but it was apparently in a museum now, and that sent her heart a flutter, so she left it. She wanted it back of course, but not enough not to take pleasure in it being seen as a historical item. Dr Tikki had chosen her for many reasons, but her humility had not been one of them.

Gabriel sent her a driver as an escort, and she didn't realize why until they got to the airport.

"I know you're not Felix," She said, "But you look like his twin."

The man, who had introduced himself as Adrien, nodded sheepishly, "My grandfather."

"So you're Gabriel's son?" She asked, and let him lead her through the crowd.

"He lets you call him that?" Adrien asked, tone scandalized, "I mean, yeah, he's my father."

"Nobody let's me do anything." She said, "I didn't join the military and destroy Hawkmoth by doing what others asked of me."

"Yeah!" Adrien agreed, and nodded his head wildly, "Grandfather used to tell stories about you, y'know? Not to me, he died before I was born, when dad was little, but he wrote these letters home and-" He stopped, because Marinette had stopped and she had look on her face like she was going to cry if he continued.

"Felix," She said, voice cracking, "He died?"

"Y-yeah," He stuttered, "Oh my gosh, sorry! I thought someone told you! I should have been more tactful, I'm so sorry!" He hurried to apologize, while searching the pockets of his black suit for a handkerchief.

"No, no," She said, and patted his shoulder a few times until he stopped moving, "I knew he was probably dead, I just... when Gabriel was still a boy?"

"Yeah," Adrien gulped, "I just, no one has told you? I would have thought..."

"The only thing I've been told about Felix has come from you, so I expect you to tell me the whole story." She informed him, perhaps more harshly than she would have done otherwise, with tears still threatening to fall out of the corner of her eyes.

Adrien finally produced a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed to her, "It's not exactly a story I would have brought up, but, shortly after you were frozen, Grandfather was announced missing in action, and later as dead."

"Oh," She wiped at her eyes, then paused as realization hit her, "But he died when Gabriel was a child."

"Yes, father was six."

"Felix had... was he?" She asked, eyes begging Adrien to say no. 

"He married grandmother when he was eighteen."

She let out a gasp, not a natural one. It sounded like a death rattle, like all the air had been forced out of her lungs all at once.

"We had a date, you know.." She said, "For the friday after."

"Yes," Adrien nodded, and put an arm around her. She almost jerked away, but realized he was shielding her from the crowds who might look at her and judge. She realized she was crying in a distant sort of way.

By the time she saw the memorial, she already felt numb.

Adrien had never had to comfort a sad women in his entire life. His grandmother had been made out of iron, he wasn't even sure she had emotions, and Chloe cried at the drop of a hat. He had never taken her tears seriously, and he had never been expected to comfort her beyond a simple hug.

There was no way he could hug Ladybug, even thinking about the way he had put an arm around her earlier could send him into a blushing fit of hysterics if he wasn't careful about it. He was half-tempted to enshrine the handkerchief he had lent her. It had touched her glorious face.

It took him the plane ride home to figure it out, but he decided the best thing to do was take her where he went when he was in need of comfort, which was the bakery.

"Are you hungry?" He asked, as he pulled into the closest parking lot.

"I suppose." She said, with a shrug.

"I know this place," He hopped out of the car and opened her door, before continuing, "The best bakery in the entire world."

She followed him, eyes downcast, until he stopped. She looked up, and then gaped in astonishment, eyes wide. She brought a hand to her mouth, then dropped it, and turned to him with a questioning look.

"That couldn't be-?"

"It is!" He said cheerfully, "The Boulangerie Patisserie, still here, and still making the best macarons on this planet."

"But how? Papa... and mama said she was going to close it?" She asked, there was a sadness in her eyes, but excitement too, to see her parent's bakery still open.

"People got upset that the home of Captain Ladybug was going to be auctioned off so easily. Everyone donated money to keep it running, and Alya's family moved in to help. It's run by her great-niece, Manon now."

"Everyone?" She asked, and he understood her meaning.

No one had ever given Sabine Cheng the respect she had deserved. They had treated her like an animal, an Asian woman marrying a successful white baker. They hated her and tried to rip her to shreds with their vicious words. But Sabine was above them, because no matter how much they hated her, they still loved her macaroons.

"Everyone. After you crashed, no one dared insult her." He offered her his handkerchief again, and wondered if perhaps he had messed up again, if he shouldn't have just taken her back to the base to comfort herself. But he couldn't have done that, Ladybug had no one now, he wanted to be there for her. Like the figure of her had been in his childhood.

She wiped her tears and returned his handkerchief once more, then smiled at him in a way the took his breathe away, "That may be the only good thing to come out of this. Come on, let's go and see if their eclairs are as good as papa's."

He smiled back, hesitantly, "I never had eclairs better." He informed her, and held the door open.

"But you've never had mine." She chuckled.

"Then you'll have to make me some to compare." He laughed.

"Maybe I will, one day."

 **AN:** xposted to Archive of Our Own. Follow me on tumblr StrawberryDecaf


	2. Chapter 2

The downside to having heroes in the new millennium, Marinette quickly discovered, was that there was generally a reason they hang around. Namely, the villains. Nothing on par with Hawkmoth, but an annoyance all the same.

"My lady." Chat Noir said when he came to pick her up from the cafeteria, "We've been called to the field."

"Really?" She asked, and tucked her unopened pudding cup into her purse. She hadn't changed out of her Ladybug costume since her awakening, except to put on her military uniform and go to the memorial.

"Yep," Chat said, his popped 'p' managed to come through the his mechanical voice, "It's going to be exciting! Not the villain, it's just Stormy again, but I've been developing a way to travel with you, since you don't want to get your motorcycle."

"Stormy?" Marinette asked, and gestured for him to lead the way to the exit.

He seemed slightly put out that she hadn't asked about his new transport method, judging by the way his tail and ears sagged slightly, "Stormy Weather, otherwise known as Aurore Borell. She has an umbrella that can control weather, but it's easy to get it from her. Unfortunately, she has friends in high places, she's keeps getting released from prison. Today, she's decided to freeze the park."

"Sounds easy enough, what do you need me for?"

"She may," Chat said, rubbing the back of his helmet, " _may_ , have figured out that my suit has a slight, uh, problem with frost."

"Problem?" Marinette asked with a raised eyebrow.

"In that, if I get covered in Frost, my suit will lock up." He explained, averting his eyes, "I can fix it! But, I just don't have the material right now."

"I understand," She assured him, "So, we're off to the park, I'll distract Stormy Weather, and you sneak up to her and steal her umbrella."

"Ah, okay!" He smiled, and she could see the way his shoulders relaxed. His suit was fascinating, pitch black and elegant. It didn't make a noise, she had noticed that right away. He moved like he was dressed in casual clothes, instead of metal armor that his file estimated to be anywhere from 70 to 100 pounds.

He was probably tiny, like a jockey, he'd have to be to look so lithe in the suit. Maybe he'd open up the suit and turn out to be three feet high. Maybe he'd open the suit and there wouldn't be anything in there at all. The future was a strange place where no one seemed willing to share basic information. They hadn't told her about Felix, would they bother to tell her that her partner was a robot?

Or worse, what if he couldn't open the suit? What if it was life support? Like an iron lung he could walk around in. God, she hoped not.

"So, are you curious why we're on the tenth floor?" Chat asked, paused by a door which bore numerous warnings not to open.

"Huh?" She asked, narrowly managing not to run into him, "Sorry, I was lost in thought."

"Do you want to know why we're on the tenth floor?" He tilted his head to the side, and even through his helmet she could feel his teasing grin.

"I assume so you can show me how we're getting to the park." Marinette replied easily, one eyebrow raised.

"Correct!" He announced, then turned and gestured to his back, where with a steam-like hiss, two handles appeared, while two rests rose from his legs, "See, I installed handles! This way, I can fly us to the park."

"I am not doing that." She informed him immediately.

He pouted, which was to say that his cat ears sagged down and he clutched at his tail as he turned towards her, "You won't fall off! It's a short flight, and I've studied your files, you should be able to handle an hour long flight! Purr-ease my lady? Even if you did fall off, you're ladybug! You would survive!"

"You're really not helping your case pal," She informed him, but she could feel herself wavering as his ears sagged lower and lower, she frowned at him and hissed out, "You get one chance. If you drop me, I swear I'm not going near that suit again."

Chat perked up immediately, though his helmet remained smooth and expressionless.

"Thank you my lady, I won't betray your trust!" He assured, and turned to allow her to climb up once more.

"You better not cool cat." She mumbled.

Flying on Chat Noir's back was a bit like skydiving from a plane, just more horizontal than she was used to. He had been right of course, the flight from SHIELD HQ to the frozen-over park was less than five minutes. A short time when it came to travel, but an eternity when spent in silence.

"Remind me to build you a headset," Chat said, once they touched down and the wind that head deafened them before cleared out of their ears.

"I'll hold you to it fly boy," Marinette replied, "You know the plan?"

"Yes."

"Good!" She said, and took off.

"Wait!" He shouted, but seemed to realize she was already out earshot.

Marinette had seen Stormy Weather in the corner of the park, with a man in a suit fancier than the SHIELD agents wore. Stormy was cackling something about revenge and news, but Marinette couldn't hear it clearly.

And to be honest, she didn't care to what justification Stormy had. For the first time in the weeks since she'd been stranded away from everyone she knew and loved, she was allowed to fight without holding back. She had destroyed a punching bag, and been forced to punch softer for fear of it happening again. She had dragged the field agents in for spars, but every time she was reminded that they were good, human people.

They only people Marinette wanted to punch were dead, so Stormy would have to take one for the sake of her sanity.

"Hey, ice queen!" She shouted, her hand brushed her gun when she shoved it into her purse, but she went for her yoyo instead, and slung it straight into Stormy's forehead.

"Who dares-?" Stormy demanded, and aimed a blast of ice towards her.

"I dare!" Marinette replied, and whipped her returning yo-yo into an arc to rebound the icy blast away from her.

"Why you!" Stormy shrieked, and threw more blasts.

"Come and catch me!" Marinette laughed, and took off.

Chat Noir maybe waited a few moments longer then he needed to in order to jump in and grab Stormy's umbrella. There were reasons for it, of course, it was just that if Ladybug asked he wasn't sure he was going to be able to explain that the reasons could be summed by pointing at her.

Ladybug was fluid and agile, she jumped from tree to tree, slowly leading Stormy closer to his hiding spot without revealing him or making it obvious she was leading Stormy anywhere except for away from civilians.

In his bedroom, back at the manor, he had a poster of her in her uniform. She had several, he knew, but the one she preferred was the one in his poster and the one she wore know. The simple ladybug jumpsuit, a pair of pants stolen from Grandfather Felix, and a pair of combat boots that looked old enough to have come out of World War 1.

It was her most attractive outfit, nor the best outfit for her to fight in, but watching her graceful, gravity-defying jumps, he found his mouth dry, his heart beating so fast that he could almost feel the arc reactor heat up. Ladybug could fight crime in a paper bag and he would still find her attractive.

Though, if she ever wanted to switch to her more famous costume, the jumpsuit combined with thigh-high boots and a combat vest, he sure as hell wouldn't complain.

Eventually, he managed to wrench himself out of his musings and leap forward to grab the umbrella. The cops took Stormy away quickly, while clean up crews arrived to defrost the park. They moved so quickly, he wouldn't have been surprised to learn they had been waiting a block away from them to finish.

"Good job cool cat," Ladybug said.

He could have died happy right there, "Thank you! You did amazing as well, of course!" He cheered, and held out his hand for a fistbump.

She tilted her head in confusion, and then reached out and grasped his fist in hers to give it a shake. He allowed it, but pulled his hand away and returned it once again with a fist.

"This is called a fist bump." He said, "Place your fist against mine. It's like this century's version of a high five."

"Isn't that more of a sporty thing?" She asked, and wrinkled her nose.

"We just battled a crazy person who controlled weather with an umbrella," Chat laughed, "I'm not sure what else you could classify as a sport my lady."

She rolled her eyes with a small grin and returned his fist bump without much more prodding.

"I wouldn't call it a sport," She said, dropping her fist, "More like a warm up. How do you feel about sparring a bit?"

He grinned wide, his heart seemed to want to burst through his suit and straight into Ladybug's arms, "Of course! If you don't mind flying back my lady?"

He gestured to his back and she shrugged.

"Sure, just don't drop me cool cat."

"I promise."

 **AN:** xposted to AO3, and also I post there first so if you want it like ten minutes before users then read it there haha.

Art posted under the "Captain-ladybug" tag my tumblr StrawberryDecaf


	3. Chapter 3

The Miraculous was an 'on the nose' sort of name. When Ladybug had first heard it, she had thought it was just a codename. The higher-ups loved them after all. There was a reason she had run around Europe in a spotted red jumpsuit, and it wasn't because it was _tres chic_.

But then Alya was kidnapped, and she discovered the truth behind it's name.

The Miraculous was the basis of the mutations that Dr. Tikki had done to her, and it was the basis of Hawkmoth's own mutations. The difference in their powers alone showed the dynamic powers of The Miraculous. It could do anything, save lives and take them.

To history, what Hawkmoth did with the Miraculous beyond his mutations would forever be a mystery. But Ladybug and Alya witnessed it. No, to be more precise they were the only ones who were able to even remember it.

Hawkmoth had used it to wipe a town off the map. Literally, every citizen erased from history like they had never existed. A wife who had been visiting her sister forgot her husband and son. A mother in Munich cried for days, but wasn't able to tell anyone why. A child living with his grandparents forgot the feeling of his mother's arms around him, the way his father laughed, forgot that he had ever been anything but an unloved orphan.

The moment they understood it, the one decision Hawkmoth couldn't undo, his fate was sealed. The two women knew then that there was no cost they wouldn't pay to stop him from committing the act again.

Alya first, she wrote and wrote about the evils of Hawkmoth. Her expose on the treatment of Hawkmoth's prisoners was later attributed as one that lead to a rise in recruitment as more people realized that the evil of it needed to be stopped. Of course, her articles and curious nature led to her capture, and eventual death at the bottom of a rushing ravine.

But her death brought some good, Alya had used her last moments to distract Hawkmoth so Ladybug could retrieve the Miraculous. It was returned to safety.

For a handful of months, until Hawkmoth captured it once more. Ladybug managed to jump onto his plane, and he took a chance at survival by jumping out of the plane, only to fall into the depths of an icy ocean. Of course, Ladybug followed after, forced to choose between the lives of millions or her own. But she died knowing the Miraculous was safe, doomed to the bottom of the ocean with her.

It turned out that even if you put something at the bottom of the ocean, somebody will find it.

And no matter how determined you are to protect something, someone will steal it.

Ladybug knew something was wrong the moment she woke up. It was only three am, the mutations had allowed her to function on less than an hour of sleep but she still tried to get a round five and she had only stopped reading wikipedia pages around twelve.

There was a change in the air. SHIELD HQ ran a tight ship, there were no loud alarms or flashing lights to signify trouble. No, when trouble struck it was passed from cell phone to cell phone, headset to headset. Most of the time trouble was on a need to know basis. The higher-ups got to decide whether lower-level agents got to know, from something as basic as a change to the lunch menu to something as vital as building evacuation.

But SHIELD couldn't control the feeling in the air, the way the very feeling in the building changed and tensed.

Marinette didn't know if it was the mutation or something she had always had, but she could taste trouble brewing in the air. Her first instinct was to find Chat, she knew he often hung around the labs, taking advantage of SHIELD labs to fix and upgrade his suit.

She was halfway to the lab when she cursed, Chat had told her during their last spar that he was going to be away for awhile. He apparently had a real job, outside of hero work, and he couldn't too much time off without looking suspicious. He had given her his number and showed her how to work her phone to call him, but she didn't want to drag him away from job for nothing but a feeling.

She turned and started heading for Adrien instead. He was a SHIELD agent if nothing else, she knew she could trust him. The two of them had returned to her parent's bakery a few times, and he had even escorted her to some movies. The first time, she hadn't been able to sit through it, to reminded of Alya, who had dragged her out of the bakery to be escorted to a movie with any boys she could find to pay.

She found him hunched over one of the computers in the SHIELD communications lab, typing away. She quickly moved toward him and grabbed his shoulder to alert him to her presence.

"Listen," She ordered, "Do you get a break? I don't know how modern day works, but in my day people usually got breaks, so you need to take one right now."

Adrien nodded once without looking at her, his mouth set in a grim line, "Carol, I'm taking my break."

He followed her out of the room. She led him through the building and straight into the garage, headed for the car they usually took, but he grabbed her arm and shook his head, and lead her to a smaller, grungier car parked further off.

"What's going on?" He asked once they were in the car.

"Something bad is about to happen," She said, trusting that he had made sure to pick a spot where they wouldn't be overheard, "I don't know what, but-"

She was cut off by the sound of an explosion.

"That was a bit on the nose." Adrien said with a raised eyebrow.

"I didn't think it was going to be right now!" She hissed, "I just had a feeling!"

"Look, you take care of whatever just happened, I'll track down Chat Noir."

She nodded and climbed out of the car.

The interior of SHIELD HQ was full of panicked employees trying to escape. She could tell that the explosion had happened on a lower floor, which was going to make getting to it's source harder. The elevators only went to the lower floors for the higher ups. Which meant she was going to have to improvise.

She headed straight for the first elevator she could find and pulled the doors apart. She could see the elevator itself on a higher floor, moving higher, despite this she knew she would have to move fast, at any moment it could reverse and head for her.

She had never rappelled down an elevator shaft before, but she had to say, it was easier then rappelling down a cliff face. She knew she had gotten the right floor when she threw the doors open and a thick cloud of smoke greeted her.

The floor was devastated, a battle had happened in it's entrance and continued on. A dead agent was sprawled across a desk, her gun still gripped in her fist.

Ladybug murmured a silent pray for her as she took it. Guns were for the living after all, and her pistol was from world war 2, kept in a box for several years. Whoever had caused the explosion was going to be armed, and she needed to be prepared for them.

She ran towards the room the most was coming out of, where the roar of gunfire was still sounding, only to be knocked down. She quickly jumped up, gun aimed at the women who had knocked her down, only to nearly drop it in shock. She had been prepared for many things in the future, but not for this.

It was a woman in a black jumpsuit wearing a black mask, clutched tightly in her hands was a suitcase that sang to Ladybug like nothing else in the universe had.

"Stay or die." The woman ordered, and then ran towards the elevator shaft.

Ladybug obeyed, because she wasn't sure what else she could do. Her hands began to shake so hard that she hastily shoved the gun into her purse rather then drop it and risk shooting herself in the foot.

It wasn't fair, she had mourned already. She was supposed to move on now, find a life in the crazy future. But it seemed her past was set on haunting her.

Alya had just stolen the Miraculous, and Ladybug needed to stop her.

 **AN:** So yeah, stuff was merged haha.


	4. Chapter 4

Marinette couldn't remember the first time she had met Alya. It seemed a bit like they had always known each other. The two of them had grown up in a world where to be non-white was to be trash, but Marinette felt there was more to their friendship then being the only children who looked different. She could feel, in a way, that no matter their skin color or how people treated them, they would always be friends.

Other people hadn't felt the same.

Marinette was a quiet, sickly child. People liked to claim her illness was the result of her mixed race, but in truth she was just unlucky. Her immune system just wasn't as strong as other people's. She got Scarlet Fever at three, pneumonia on three separate occasions, and not to mention her horrible asthma. The only luck she had was that she hadn't died.

Being so sickly, she was often shut up in her room to draw. To the outside world, that was all she was, constant illness and pretty pictures.

That wasn't what she was to Alya though. Alya knew the truth about Marinette. That even though she was a scrawny little thing, she had the bravery of lumberjack.

Alya had never once thought that anyone would try to hit Marinette, for awhile. That turned out to be false, as time went by. Little Mari couldn't stand bullies, and bullies seemed to be the type of people willing to hit girls who looked like they were made out of glass. And Marinette was the type of girl who punched back even though her jaw was broken, and then walked around with her arm in a cast like it was a badge of honor.

So, Alya had no choice but to start watching out for her.

Which didn't help her reputation. Alya was the only girl to attend their school with skin darker than tan. Rumors of her promiscuity and wildness had spread by the time she was seven. It was perhaps dealing with so many false rumors that made Alya so obsessed with discovering the truth about matters.

Marinette had loved that, though she couldn't say she hadn't been embarrassed by it on occasion. Sitting in History class and listening to Alya stand up and loudly correct the teacher about certain things had been so nerve-wracking that Marinette had excused herself to go home despite feeling surprising healthy.

Still, the two had been friends. That friendship had led to Alya chasing Marinette around war zones, and telling any general with half a mind to stop her that she was Captain Ladybug's _personal_ reporter, thank you very much.

Marinette had spent every moment after her death wondering if it had been her fault, if she hadn't spent her childhood fighting bullies and letting Alya sneak into her room to read to her, would Alya have lived?

It turned out that question had been pointless, because apparently Alya had lived.

Chat had fought off giant squids, whip-wielding juggalos, and terrorists, but he had to stay Ladybug's glare was the most terrifying thing he had ever seen, and he didn't even have to fight her. He hoped he didn't anyway, trouble in SHIELD could many anything, even some sort of weird mind control beam.

He almost wanted to fly back up the elevator shaft and return to helping employees evacuate.

"Chat." Ladybug said, and her voice was calm, like there wasn't a dead body two feet away from her, "Did you see a woman run past just now, with a metal arm?"

"No." He said, already hacking into the SHIELD cameras to see check the other floors, "She isn't in the building."

"She stole the Miraculous."

"W-what?" He shouted, he dropped heavily onto the ground, to surprised to focus on controlling his repulsors, "But how? Nathalie said the Director would be keeping it on himself personally!"

"The director is dead." Came a voice suddenly.

Ladybug and Chat turned to see Nathalie exiting from down the hall, covered in ash and clutching a gun. There was a cigarette in her mouth, and her nose looked like it had been broken and reset wrong, still blood covered. Somehow, her suit was still impeccable, if it weren't for the ash it would look fresh from the cleaners.

"Gabriel is dead?" Ladybug gasped.

Chat couldn't focus on her shock though, he was too busy dealing with his own, "Gabriel? as in Gabriel Agreste?" He asked, though he was sure he already knew.

"Yes, that was a level 8 secret, Captain." Nathalie said, glaring at Ladybug. Protecting the Director's secrets to the end, as though they mattered when he was dead.

"I didn't know." Ladybug shrugged, unrepentant, "I assumed leaders were the one thing that wouldn't be kept secret in a free nation."

"SHIELD isn't a free nation," Nathalie replied, and blew a smoke ring at Ladybug, "It's a secret organization, and it seems to be collapsing. So, I don't suppose you could give a girl a hand and drop me off somewhere without dead bodies?"

"Chat, could you drop her off?" Ladybug said, her eyes like hot stones.

Chat hadn't heard a word they had said, too focused on the iron weight that had settled in his chest. There had to be something wrong with the arc reactor, maybe he had stopped functioning and he just hadn't noticed, every moment he spent frozen the shrapnel got closer and closer to his heart. That was the only explanation.

But, he knew it wasn't true. He had never thought what it would be like when his father died, only that he would older than he was, more prepared to inherit the company. Married maybe, with children. He thought that he would have someone to comfort him, besides Nino and Chloe who wouldn't understand his feelings anyway.

The feelings he had for his father were a dark twisted knot, the complicated feelings of loving someone and thinking their a murderer. His father's company had been responsible for the deaths of millions, even more deaths now that he knew his father had been the Director of SHIELD.

And, God, the Irony of that. He had quit the company and cut himself off, and then gone and got himself a job working under his father again. Had his father known? Had his father laughed at him, when he went out to live on his own and returned to his father's control almost immediately?

"Chat!" Ladybug said, and she sounded like she had been saying it for awhile.

"Huh? Sorry my lady, I was... lost in thought for a moment." He tried to force out a laugh, but the suits audio filter made it sound more like a groan.

"It's fine," Ladybug said, she tilted her head to the side, like he was a puzzle to solve, then shrugged, "Can you take Nathalie outside? I have no clue if there's anymore surprises hidden around here."

"There won't be," Nathalie assured, and took another drag of her cigarette, "The Winter Soldier follows certain rules, now that she's left we should be fine. But I'm not particularly fond of the idea of staying in a potentially unstable building."

"The Winter Soldier?" Ladybug asked, and her eyes demanded answers.

Chat wished suddenly, that he could be as tall as he was in the suit at all times, if for nothing else to admire her eyes.

"Look it up, the Director's laptop is still in there," She gestured back towards the room, then turned to Chat, "If you don't mind, Mr. Noir, I'd like to leave."

"Right, of course." Chat nodded and turned. Nathalie didn't even blink as he climbed on. He wondered if it was trust in him, her confidence that she would survive, or her ability to hide her feelings that made it so easy for her to climb on.

He glanced at Ladybug, waiting for her word.

"I'll be fine Chat." She said, and gave him a smile that was more teeth than anything else.

Chat wondered if he could say the same if she asked him.

It didn't matter, he would just have to put his feelings aside. The Miraculous was missing, and it was in the hands of the Winter Soldier. They needed to get it from her as fast as possible, there was no way that combination could do any good for the world.

 **AN:** More mixing things up haha. Follow me StrawberryDecaf


	5. Chapter 5

Ladybug had enough time to grab the Director's laptop before a two agents ran into the room, guns at the ready. Ladybug quickly shoved the laptop into her purse before they could take notice of her, then pulled out the gun she had grabbed before, just in case.

She knew the agents of course, she hadn't been a total shut in. Alix and Kim, field agents and partners more often than not. She had worked with them once, gone to Lithuania to fetch a file from an enemy base. They had fought well together, whenever they weren't fighting each other. She was glad to see they were alright.

Alix caught sight of her first and dropped her gun, "It's the Captain."

"How do we know?" Kim scowled, and kept his gun trained on her, "How do we know she isn't one of them? They have all sorts of technology, whose to say they didn't just make us all think she was the Captain."

"Pulling her out of the ice, when I think about it, it does sound..." Alix trailed off and raised her gun again.

"What are you two talking about?" Ladybug asked, confused, she tightened her grip on her gun.

"What side are you on?" Kim demanded.

"Sides?" She asked, and tilted her head to the side, "I work for SHIELD."

"Yeah well, turns out there's more to working SHIELD then that," Alix grunted. She looked back at Kim, and they seemed to have a moment of communication through eyes online.

"Swear allegiance to Hawkmouth." Kim suddenly demanded, Alix and him both pointed their guns straight at her, kill shots.

"What?" Ladybug croaked, she could feel a cold sweat break out, was this just a nightmare?

"Swear. Allegiance. To. Hawkmoth." Kim ordered again, and took a step forward.

She was trapped in the corner of the room, halfway behind the desk. She could dusk underneath it, but it's other side was solid, not something she could climb out of the other side of. She still had her gun, but by the time she could lift it up Kim would have already shot her twice. She knew she could recover well enough from most shots, but she had never been shot between the eyes before, and there was a good chance it could mean her permanent end.

"No way in Hell." She said, prepared to die.

"Thank god," Alix said, and the two of them dropped their guns.

"Sorry about that Captain." Kim said, sounding almost embarrassed.

She sighed in relief, a test then, "I take it Hawkmouth has returned?"

Alix nodded tersely, brows furrowed, "It was crazy Captain, One minute we're at normal operations, then this lady with a silver arm walks in, easy as you please, and she's got the box the Director's been guarding like a hawk all month."

"So of course," Kim cuts in when Alix pauses to take a breathe, "We check to see if she has clearance, and then Alix notices-"

"That she was someone I'd met before! I don't know if we ever told you, but I'm a bonafide commie traitor, and while I was under them, I met her. They called her the soldier, or something like that, and we did like a mission together before Kim came along and dragged me out of that life," She frowned, "'Course it seems the big jerk dragged me right back into another criminal organization!"

"Things change!" Kim defended, "Besides, the only loyalty we need now is loyalty to the Captain, she'll lead us true."

Ladybug felt herself blushing, though it wasn't the first time someone had pledged loyalty to her. She was always surprised about it, that people wanted to follow little Mari who had spent her childhood drawing. If she had known the future, she might have devoted more time in preparing to be a leader, maybe read "The Art of War", or learned how to play chess.

"The Soldier, do you have any more information on her?" Marinette said, before Alix could reply.

"Not much," Alix shrugged, "She's quiet, and ruthless. Keep away from her arm, Captain, it's got tricks. I saw her melt a man's trachea shut, 'nough to get any sane person ready to run. I didn't want them turning me into that."

"You wouldn't ever be that." Kim scowled.

"Thanks for the advice." Ladybug said, and tried to ignore the way her stomach seemed to want to crawl out her throat, "I'll keep it in mind."

She made to head out, but was stopped by Alix's grip on her arm.

"Wait Captain," Alix asked, eyes pleading, "What should we do now? SHIELD is compromised, we don't know who to trust."

Ladybug felt helpless for a moment, at the trust the two had placed in her. Their lives were in her hands now, she was responsible for their survival.

But, she thought with a small gulp, they were trained super spies who played with knives and kicked ass on a regular basis, maybe it wouldn't be so hard to direct them properly. She just had to think of them allies instead of civilians. She thought hard, trying to decide where to direct them. Where she would send them if it was Chat standing in front of her?

"Do you know the Boulangerie Patisserie?"

"Sure," Alix shrugged, "Best pastries in the world."

Ladybug smiled for a moment, and tried to hold onto the warmth of that though over the coldness that had entrenched her so far, "Go there, tell Manon I sent you, I'll contact you later."

The two nodded, and headed off, allowing Ladybug a moment to focus on her other troubles.

SHIELD was compromised, and the two people she trusted most in this century both worked for it. She didn't know where Adrien was, and Chat... well, half the time she wasn't even sure Chat wasn't just a quirky robot. She had watched Star Wars, she knew what the new century could do.

So that meant it was just her again.

No, there was Alix and Kim. But she could she really drag them into her fight? Would they even understand why she needed to recover the Soldier instead of kill her? They were spies, sure, but what they had signed up for with SHIELD didn't necessarily mean they wanted to help her take down Hawkmoth, again. For all she knew, the only thing they wanted from her was a chance at surviving the fight, and she couldn't blame them for that.

Her thoughts were interrupted by another troop of SHIELD agents, though this time she had the luck of being close enough to the opposite door.

"Captain Ladybug," One of the agents said, unfamiliar to her, "You are to be escorted to a safe location. The security of SHIELD has been compromised."

"I'm aware," She said tensely, "Any reason I can't stick around to help out?"

The agents glanced at each other, eyes questioning, shoulders tensed, "It's for your safety Captain."

"Why?" She asked, "Because if I don't you'll shoot me?"

"If that's what we have to do Captain." One of the agents said, which was all the confirmation she needed.

It wouldn't be the first time she had fought her way out of a building.

 **AN:** A short chapter because I'm awful and because college sucks.


	6. Chapter 6

It was Alya who taught her about how to walk. Not in the way babies had to learn, but in the way that timid adults did.

"Shoulders back, chin up, be confident," Alya had ordered.

Alya could have walked up to the king himself and shook his hand without anyone asking a question. Her stride was so confident, her face so sure, it always seemed impossible to think that she didn't belong in whatever place she had decided to occupy.

Marinette remembered her lessons carefully as she walked away from SHIELD. She imagined that she was a completely normal woman, born in the this century. She had seen, on the youtube, people dressed up in costumes before. She just had to act like one of those people who walked around in costumes of famous people.

She had a handful of cash, her "allowance" from SHIELD, and a plastic card that could apparently buy things, though she still wasn't clear on how or why.

She stopped at the first kiosk she could find and bought a hat and T-shirt, both which said she loved NY. It was easy enough to play a tourist, and she needed to get out of her suit quick if she didn't want to get caught. A confident walk could only carry her so far.

She ducked down an alley and changed as quick as she could, then put her hair into a ponytail to add more to the disguise. People, she had found, generally only looked for what they expected, so ditching her usual victory rolls or twintails should at least give her a slight lead. Especially combined with her tourist clothes.

Once suitably disguised, she rolled her shoulders and headed out. The first thing she needed was to contact those she trusted, and that meant heading to the bakery. Then she would find Alya, and she would bring her back no matter what it took.

Alya was her best friend, and she would do anything to have her back.

This had to be the worst day of Adrien's life. First, his father had died at the hands of a crazed maniac. Then he discovered, while getting his father's secretary to safety, that the organisation his father had helped found and he had spent the last few years working for both in and out of his suit was actually a cover for the Akumas who were determined to finish what Hawkmoth had started.

And also Ladybug had gone missing.

Maybe this was all just a dream and he was still in Afghanistan, any minute now Plagg was going to wake him up and complain about how his fever was getting worse and how badly he wanted some cheese. He would get up and carry the car battery attached to him, and they would play backgammon until what little medicine Plagg could give him kicked in and he fell asleep once more.

Except, of course, it wasn't a dream. Everything bad had happened, and like Afghanistan, he couldn't let it all stop him from continuing on. Agreste men don't rust, as his father had told him so often. (As his father would never say again).

So that meant he needed to carry on and sort his priorities.

First of all, ensuring no civilians were hurt. Once he finished that, he found himself unsure of where to go next, He had three objectives, Hack into SHIELD's files to figure out how deeply the Akumas had infiltrated, get revenge for his father, and find ladybug.

He knew that logically, he should check the influence of the Akumas, they were dangerous, smart, and he had no idea what their plan was or why they would choose today to reveal themselves. There had to be something big, something Chat Noir would need to be on the lookout for.

If he was going to disregard that, then finding Ladybug should have been his next move. He could trust her to know what to do next, and if nothing else he needed to make sure she was safe and not captured by Akumas. Ladybug was important to him, and he didn't know what he would do if he discovered she had been seriously injured because he had put his personal feelings ahead of what needed to be done.

Yet, knowing all this, Chat still made his decision.

"PLAGG, locate the Winter Soldier." He said as he put on his suit, "Do whatever needs to be done."

"What needs to be done could be highly illegal." PLAGG said, and even with his mechanical voice, Adrien could tell PLAGG disapproved. He cursed whatever part of his mind decided to make give his AI the ability to judge him.

"Like I said," Adrien said, and flew upwards, "Whatever needs to be done."

"As you wish sir."

It wasn't the first time Adrien had put his personal feelings over everything else. He tried to comfort himself with the thought that Ladybug was likely safe, he knew she was capable and would be able to fight her way out of any situation. If she was captured, and hadn't escaped by the time he got his revenge, then he would be sure to break out. And if she was free, then he was sure she was after the Winter Soldier too.

He had confidence in Ladybug's abilities after all, so if she asked him why he hadn't sought her out first, then he would just tell her that he simply been anticipating what she would want done. The Winter Soldier had stolen the Miraculous, that would need to be recovered before any serious damage occurred.

"Sir, I've located the Soldier." PLAGG announced.

"Where?" He demanded, and had to resist the urge to pull up his weapons in preparation.

"Sir, I feel I must warn you-"

"PLAGG," He interrupted, "Tell me where she is."

"Transmitting coordinates now, sir."

He took off flying immediately, the only thought in his head was that he was, for the first time in years, going to do what his father would want him to. Adrien had never thought of violence as a solution to his problems until that moment, and now that was all he could think about. He was going to kill the Winter Soldier once he found her.

A life for a life.

 **AN:** Sorry it took awhile, life is crazy. IDK if I've mentioned it before, but this is a first draft of this fic, basically if I don't post it I'll never finish it. Once it's done I'll be rewriting it.


End file.
